How damaging to your health are exhaust fumes?

[deckster]

Using the entirely unscientific of comparing the colour of my snot, cycling through London's streets is far more healthy than using the tube.

[SixtySpeedTwin]

when i used to commute through heavy traffic i used a respro scarf or a mask which had activated charcoal filters. I felt better for it although they were a bit sticky in the summer. I havent seen them for ages though and i now pedal along the seafront to work

[Fastpedeller]

oyster said:

Does anybody else hold their breath when passing through a diesel 'cloud' caused by a taxi/bus/van/shed flooring it?

Followed by the inevitable panting a few seconds later.

Having worked in the auto industry (and in conjunction with emissions experts) the consensus was that the diesel cloud you see isn't the harmful one - the one YOU DON'T SEE IS THE DANGER. That's because the one you see is made up of big particulates, which will get trapped by your mucus and nasal hairs. The small particles you can't see can get into the depths of the lungs! Sounds logical....
and somewhat nasty

[untakenname]

Interestingly enough the mayor of France wants diesels banned by 2020 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30368504

In the summer when there's a couple of days worth of high pressure you can see and even taste the pollution in the air the closer to London you get.